The Biggest Donors  

Conventional wisdom has it that the biggest international development donors are the UN member countries that give the most money, calculated by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in Paris as net official development assistance (ODA), or the level of government aid designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries1. Recognizing that every country in the world has strong traditions of helping others, it seemed to us that generosity isn’t just a matter of how much you give. In an everyday sense, it is about what you give of what you have to give. To identify the most generous countries in terms of a simple person-to-person understanding of generosity, we looked at alternative OECD measures and selected “development aid per capita” as the best proxy for generosity. This said, aid as a percent of ‘gross national income’ (GNI) is also illuminating. The results of our ranking, on Column 3 in the table shown are fascinating.   

Over the past several years, I4DI has had the pleasure of working with development assistance organizations in four of the top ten countries by this generosity ranking. Work has been completed with organizations in these countries on programs that address Sustainable Development Goals, to which their resources have been directed.  

Namely, the Finnish National Agency for Education (SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all)  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (various SDGs)  Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) (SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all) Swisscontact (SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all).